Yesterday, Mayor Vincent C. Gray visited Yards Park, where he gave an update on his economic development agenda and announced several new businesses opening in the District. Between the new City Center DC mixed-use complex on the Old Convention Center site in Ward 2, retailers such as Harris Teeter and Potbelly opening in Yards Park along the Anacostia River in Ward 6, and government contractor MVM Technologies moving its headquarters and ink jet manufacturing facilities to Ward 8, Gray estimated upwards of 4,500 permanent new jobs will be created in the city. And the construction work involved with building these sites account for at least for another 1,400 temporary jobs.
The big question is: Will DC residents benefit from this job creation?
Even though there are far more jobs than working adults in the District, about one out of ten District residents searching for work cannot find a job. There are many factors why this is the case, but one big issue is that many residents searching for work are not prepared for the jobs that are available in our labor market.
Certainly job training needs to take place. But how do we assess the skills of applicants, the training needs of employers, the capacity of training providers and other factors’like, for example, if it’s necessary for workers to be able to drive and/or own a vehicle’in the most fluid, coordinated way to make the best job match possible?
A solution several other cities have tried with success is to create what’s known as a workforce intermediary. Mayor Gray announced at yesterday’s event that his administration supports the creation of a workforce intermediary, and, in fact, there is legislation to create a workforce intermediary currently being considered by the DC Council.
So what is a workforce intermediary?
A workforce intermediary is a broker or matchmaker in the jobs market. An intermediary works with employers; job seekers; training providers such as community colleges and nonprofit organizations; and government workforce agencies such as DC’s Department of Employment Services and Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to create a stronger workforce development pipeline. The intermediary helps match workers to employers by assessing, preparing and forecasting what’s needed for jobs that are available’and even better, for jobs that will be available in the future. It is not separate from other workforce development efforts, such as One-Stop Centers and Community College programs, but an additional tool to further enhance these programs.
One important clarification: Workforce intermediaries are commonly confused with training providers. Actually intermediaries contract with training providers and act as a neutral broker between training providers, job seekers in search of skills, and employers. As a result, workforce intermediaries are able to help businesses recruit and retain qualified workers and help workers who need skills participate in training that ends in employment.
In other words, a win-win for everyone.
DCFPI, along with DC Appleseed and the DC Employment Justice Center, authored a policy brief on the workforce intermediary last fall. We encourage both Mayor Gray and the Council to work together to start an intermediary here in DC, and we hope the process will begin with creating a task force as soon as possible to work on bringing an intermediary to our city. DC can’t pass on the opportunity to help connect its residents to 5,900 jobs.
